This week:
- I'm amazed by how many boys were called Doctor in the early 19th century. There is even a girl called Doctoressa who died in 1841.
- Lucas, Lucian and Lucius have been added to the 1911 Census Names Combos.
Bits from the Blogosphere:
- I'm fascinated by Citlali over at Appellation Mountain.
- I really liked Mer de Noms French forms of English word names.
- Names4Real listed recent British birth announcements.
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Names in the News:
- The Mirror ran a short story about a study by Thomas Cook on the top names of British Olympic Medal winners since 1912. Apparently, John and Katherine/Kate are top, followed by Tom, Christopher, Mary and Helen. But wait ... what do these names all have in common apart from Olympic winners? Well, there is the small fact that they have all been top 100 names consistently across the 20th century.
. - The Mirror also delved into the newly released 2010 name data for Ireland in search of unusual names. Barak, Ronaldo, Zinedine, Princess Infinity, Divine Fortune, Believe and Peace made their list as well as, shock horror, Timotei...because it's a shampoo! We'll just ignore cultural relevance then...
. - Ben Fogle and his wife have recently welcomed a daughter Iona, a sister for older brother Ludo, born in 2009. And it is clear that the name has a lot of meaning for her parents.
According to Ben: "Ever since I first visited the Western Isles as a boy, I have been in love with this hauntingly beautiful part of the country. So it was only natural for us to look towards the Hebrides for inspiration. And that is why we named our little girl, Iona, after the tiny island in the inner Hebrides.
"Once a centre of Irish monasticism, today Iona is renowned for its tranquillity and beauty...It receives 130,000 pilgrims each year. Sometime soon, the Fogle family will be amongst those visitors on their way to our daughter's namesake." Source: Daily Mail.
. - Other star babies this week include the Beckhams' Harper Seven, which has caused much hoopla in the British media, and Kate Hudson's Bingham "Bing" Hawn.
